The majority of Ontario’s polling stations have closed and started counting the millions of Ontarians who went to the polls on Thursday to choose their next government.
Due to technical problems earlier in the day, some polling stations remained open after 9 p.m. to allow all voters to exercise their right to vote.
From the start of the day, technical problems were reported at various voting centers using tabulators to calculate the votes, to the point where some had to resort to bringing out the good old paper ballots, local media reported. .
In addition, some polling locations changed the same day, notably in Toronto, and the Elections Ontario website crashed for a few hours.
Due to these problems, the deadline for voting, set at 9 p.m., was extended in 27 polling stations in as many constituencies. An extension ranging from ten minutes to two hours was granted, depending on the seriousness of the problems encountered.
Results in those ridings will not be released until all polls close, Elections Ontario said.
It should be noted that 9.92% of eligible voters, or 1.07 million people, had already made their choice during the ten days of advance voting, a substantial increase compared to the approximately 700,000 voters who had done the same. in 2018.
Despite these troubles, Ontarians were called upon to decide on the future of their province, while incumbent Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford is trying to obtain a second term at the head of Ontario.
The latter is the favorite to win this Thursday, the polls giving him a good head start on the Liberal Party of Ontario of Steven Del Duca and on the New Democratic Party of Ontario of Andrea Horwath, his two main rivals.